Sky’s the limb it

Sky News has a long and enviable record in producing captions that the Guardian would have been proud of in it’s heyday. The infamous Sky caption (left) is just of one the best.

But now Sky has a technology that is used in noisy conditions to automatically translate voice-to-text in real time. The joy, like all technology, is that it doesn’t really work. Take today’s G20 marches, a young reporter was desperately trying to interview protesters amid the general hubbub. It wasn’t quite this bad but here is how I remember it.

Reporter: How did you get here today?

Protester: I crossed the monument by West Chester abbey

Reporter: Why are you protesting here?

Protester: We want to end the whore in Iraq, stop global caterpillars and make the bankers give the mummy back

Reporter: Are you planning violent action?

Protester: The only acting we do is passive, we meat no arm, we are peace full. No hay man.